(MENAFN- Arab Times) Kuwaiti Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thikra Al-Rashidi said Tuesday her country adopted laws to ensure protection and care for workers in the framework of the targets set by the UN Development Program (UNDP) for 2000-15.
"The State of Kuwait supports regional and international efforts aiming to protect the rights of workers including the right to free movement," she said in a speech to the conference of "Labor Mobility â€" Enabler for Sustainable Development." The conference which kicked off at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) on Tuesday brought together a number of ministers and some 150 experts, executives and practitioners from the Gulf region and beyond to discuss trans-border movement of labor and its impact on development.
"Kuwait's new legislations address all problems affecting migrant workers whether in the sending or recipient countries and encourage all relevant initiatives and partnerships," the minister said.
The planning of labor policies in Kuwait is connected to the economic development planning in a way that ensures shared responsibilities by the private and public sectors as well as the growth-oriented comprehensive and sustainable economic development, Al-Rashidi pointed out.
"The GCC countries need to coordinate their policies and cooperate with the investment banks in order to overcome the challenges posed by the absorption of some 22 million expatriate workers from various nationalities.
"The volume of remittances by expatriate workers (in the GCC region) to their respective countries exceeds the volume of foreign aid and investment flows to these countries," she said, noting that such remittances affect the GCC economies.
Al-Rashidi commended the UAE efforts to integrate the regional and the international programs relating to labor mobility and sustainable development, citing as an example the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Initiative launched in 2008.
UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the sponsor of the conference, delivered the inaugural speech to the gathering that was read on his behalf by Minister of Labor Saqr Ayyash.
The UAE, the host of more than 15 million expatriate workers, attached great importance to regional and international efforts relating to migrant workers.
"The expatriate workers contribute to the development of our economies while benefiting, in the meantime, from the available job opportunities in furthering their careers and improving their standard of living," he said.
"The GCC region is the world's largest regional bloc in terms of remittances (to other parts of the world) which topped $80 billion in 2012; the UAE accounted for 24 percent of the figure and 15 percent of the world's total remittances," he revealed.
The two-day gathering is co-organized by the UAE Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ECSSR, the National Qualifications Authority (NQA) in partnership with the Executive Office of the Council of Ministers of Labor of the GCC, the Government of Sweden which holds the chairmanship of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Bank.
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